It Takes A Hero
by straykitty
Summary: A rather late Joeycentric brithday fic...In the face of supernatural events, can Joey ever learn that to accept help is not the same as showing weakness? R&R, pwease...


_Yes, I **know** this is late, but I've been having bloody internet troubles! So, anyway, VERRA BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Master J. Wheeler. -glomps-_

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**Disclaimer: I do not own YGO... Pity, though.**

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**It Takes a Hero To _Be_ A Hero**

"Mr. Wheeler," the teacher said gently. "I think you should go to some extra lessons."

Brown eyes watched her balefully from beneath a messy blonde fringe.

She sighed and sat on the chair in front of her unresponsive student. "Listen, Joseph, you have to pass Maths to pass the year. Maybe ask one of the others to help you out? What about Yugi – you two seem pretty – "

A mutter, the eyes flicking to the floor and then back up to meet her own defiantly.

"What was that?" The teacher smiled kindly. "I can't hear you when you mumble."

"I can't."

"Can't what?"

The steady gaze falters, the accented voice dropping to an almost-whisper. "Can't… do that." The gaze grows stronger, again defiant. "I don't need help, anyway."

"Joseph, you failed your last three tests!" The teacher reins her temper in, biting her lip. She knows she has to do this gently; otherwise the headstrong teen would never listen to her. "I don't want you to have to be left back a year, Joseph."

The brown eyes narrow dangerously. "Are you threatening me?" he demands.

"I would never…" The teacher lets out a frustrated breath and leans down to make eye contact. "I'm trying to help you, Joseph."

The blonde gets to his feet, sensing an opening. Grabbing his bag, he shoves his chair back and gets to his feet. "I don't need your help!"

The teacher lets her head drop to the desk, defeated, as the teen storms out of the classroom, letting the door slam behind him. _How can I make him see that it's not shameful to ask for help, or to accept help? He's just so stubborn… he refuses to listen to anything I say._

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Joey threw his bag onto his bed and flopped down after it, burying his face in his pillow. He couldn't get the teacher's warning out of his head. He lifted his head, and let it flop back down. _I **can't** fail the year. What kind of example is that to Seren?_

He rolled off of his bed, hitting his head on the chemistry set that had been lying there since he'd moved into the room – neither sibling had laid claim to it, and so it had just spent its existence gathering dust. The flimsy case broke with the sudden thump of the blonde head against it, making a streak of blood dribble slowly down towards the dusty contents of the box.

There was a flash of light as the blood came into contact with a substance that had long ago become unidentifiable. Joey was thrown up into the air, and he slammed against his cupboard doors.

He opened his eyes groggily to see his sister crouched over him, looking worried. "'Ren?"

Serenity smiled, relief clear in her large brown eyes. "What happened, Joey? I heard a bang…"

Joey moved his head, and groaned when it began to spin wildly. "No idea," he said when the feeling settled. "I fell off my bed – must've hit my head on something."

He lifted his head cautiously, and when it didn't feel like a safe had been dropped on it, slowly got to his feet, refusing to accept his sister's outstretched hand. Now that he got a better look at her, his eyebrows met in the middle. His sister was wearing a full-body costume of spandex, with a small frilly skirt around her waist. The outfit was silver, with several areas of pink on it, like the undersides of her arms, her skirt and the tops of her equally silver boots.

"Costume party?" he asked, waving a hand to take in her outfit.

She stared at him. "What do you mean, Joey?" She looked down, dusting some invisible dirt off of her skirt. "Is there something on my suit?"

"Suit?"

"Joey, are you sure you're alright?"

"Never been…" Joey gestured at himself, looking down in the same motion, and his sentence trailed off to end on a squeaked, "…better?"

He wore a uniform not unlike his sister's, although his was silver and blue, and didn't have the skirt. Muscles were outlined on his skinny body that he was quite certain he hadn't had that morning. He clenched and unclenched his blue-gloved hands and stared up at his sister. "What?" was all he could manage.

An alarm sounded, and the siblings instinctively looked up. Serenity's face grew even more serious and she walked over to his cupboard, yanking the door open. "I'll explain on the way, come on!"

A dumbfounded Joey followed his sister into the cupboard, through a passageway and out into a laboratory worthy of his favourite comic books. Serenity led him confidently over to a sleek machine that was a cross between a Ferrari, an aeroplane and a space ship. Already by it stood more of his friends, all dressed in the same silver costumes.

Yugi's had gold on it, the Millennium Puzzle hanging around his neck as always. He watched Joey approach through green sunglasses that gave him a strangely _cool_ look. Tristan's silver was matched with green, and he had a silver-and-green motorcycle helmet in his hands.

Mai, already in the flying machine, was occupied with placing two silver guns in their purple holsters, a slightly lighter shade than that of her uniform. She glanced up, and then returned to checking that her holsters were fastened to her satisfaction. Duke sat in one of the front seats, pressing various buttons with professional intensity, his ever-present red hair-band exactly the same shade as the red on his costume. Joey couldn't help but snort at that. Typical.

"Come _on_, Wheeler." Joey spun around to see a familiar figure straddling a motorcycle, his trench coat flaring out behind him. He glared openly as one Seto Kaiba lifted his helmet visor and drawled, "It's not like you've never seen us before."

"Not like this," muttered Joey, turning back to Serenity, who was walking over to the flying machine.

Kaiba smirked, taking his rival's silence to mean he'd won this round. He pushed his visor back down and turned to glare at Tristan. "Are you coming any time this week, Taylor?"

Tristan put his helmet on, making a rude hand gesture at the other teen before jogging over to and mounting a black motorcycle identical to Kaiba's but for the names – Kaiba's was called, predictably, _White Dragon_, while Tristan's was called _Songbird_. The two sped away, the wall lifting up as they approached and closing behind them.

"Right!" Duke called. "We are _go_!"

"Are you ever going to get over that?" Mai asked witheringly, taking a seat beside him and strapping herself in.

Duke grinned. "Nope, not likely."

Mai rolled her eyes, wishing that her own motorcycle were fixed so she wouldn't have to endure the 'banter' of the group.

Joey took a seat at Serenity's gesture, staring at the multitude of buttons in front of him. He felt something nagging at the edge of his mind, as though he had once known how to use all this and the knowledge was trying to surface from his subconscious.

Duke fired up the engine, and soon the plane was speeding through the air.

"Right," Yugi said authoritively. "This guy is in the centre of town."

"Roger that," came Tristan's voice through a speaker in front of Mai.

Yugi called up several maps and documents on a large screen, introducing them to a villain called Darkwing, who was currently wreaking havoc in the city they called their homes with a giant robot.

"Geez," Duke commented. "Can't these guys think of anything original?"

Mai shook her head, grinning. "Apparently not."

"Joey, you've been very quiet – what's the matter?" asked Serenity pointedly.

Joey jerked out of his silent, awestruck observation of his surroundings, barely taking in anything that Yugi had been saying. "Um, I…"

"Not _scared_, are you?" Mai teased, unknowingly hitting the nail on the head. "Come on, a guy like you, scared of some ickle robot?"

"Guys!" Tea's voice broke into their conversation, saving Joey the task of having to think of a reply. "I've got their position. I've sent the co-ords to Tristan and Seto… there they are now." A fearsome roar drowned out Tea's next sentence, and then the only thing coming out of the speaker was static.

"Tea!" Yugi cried, grabbing a mic in front of him and bringing it to his lips. "Tea! Come in! Do you read me? Tea!"

"We're going in," announced Duke grimly, steering the plane downwards. "Brace yourselves… this guy's a big one."

Mai unstrapped herself and dove over to a door. "Doors!" she commanded, as Duke neared the ground. The door slid open and Mai leaped out. Yugi paused to flash Joey a thumbs-up and followed her. Serenity fastened a thick vine to a handle seemingly meant for that purpose and lowered herself out, swaying in the plane's slipstream.

As she disappeared from view, Duke pulled the plane out of its dive, the doors whooshing closed, cutting Serenity's vine. "We'll come down just there," he told Joey, pointing to a traffic circle. He grinned. "Some of us are smart enough to wait for landing before we leap so heroically from the plane."

Joey grinned weakly back, clutching the arms of his chair as Duke steered the plane to a smooth landing. Once it had come to a complete stop, Duke opened the door and hopped out. Joey darted after him, not wanting to be left alone. In a millisecond he was by Duke's side, grinning in a happy, blank sort of way as his mind tried to process the fact that he now seemed to have some kind of super-speed.

"Show off," Duke teased, and then became serious as a creature came into view. A tall, thin woman dressed in some kind of black leather rounded the corner. A mask hid her face, but Joey could see her eyes… chilling slits of red that burned with some emotion that he couldn't name, but that sent a shiver through him. She turned and surveyed them, before turning and, claws shooting out of the tips of her fingers, leaping at Mai, who dodged and threw a punch. The woman-creature dodged in turn.

Yugi ran up to Joey and Duke. "It fooled my sensors!" he whispered, gesturing at the creature as it knocked Tea out of the air and sent her spinning in a silver-and-yellow blur to crash against the wall of a building and fall to the ground. He winced at the crash and ran towards her, taking off his silver gloves as he went.

Mai swung another punch at the creature, this time connecting and sending the beast flying backwards. The creature stayed down for mere seconds before jumping to its feet, making Mai swear and adopt a defensive position. Duke ran forward, leaping into the air and transforming as he went into a large jaguar-type animal – the only one in the world with a red headband on. He and the creature met head-on, Duke roaring loudly.

Mai was about to enter the fray when a small tornado that had been making its way swiftly up the street behind her stopped next to her and slowly solidified into the white-haired form of Ryou Bakura. Mai began to speak rapidly to him, and Joey turned his attention back to the battle just in time to see the creature fling Duke aside like he were nothing but a ragdoll.

He panicked, zipping over to Duke's side and asking, "What should I do?" in a voice very close to the edge of breakdown.

The jaguar faded back into the human Duke, a gash running down the side of his uniform, staining its bright red with a darker, more ominous shade. "Go… help Mai…" he gasped. Seeing the confusion and fear in Joey's eyes, he smiled. "Speed is your _thing_, man. No… no worries."

Joey turned to face the beast, and then charged it, tackling it and knocking it off of its feet. He began to throw punch after super-quick punch at its head and torso, using everything he'd ever learned while he had been a gang member to cause as much pain to the creature as possible.

"No one hurts my friends and gets away with it!" he grunted angrily.

The creature, grabbed his arms, pinning them to his sides. It had evidently gotten over the initial surprise of his attack, and was now angry that he managed to throw it off balance. He squirmed in its grip, glaring and kicking at it with his legs.

Mai leapt onto the creature's back, making it release its hold on Joey, who fell to the floor. It bucked and, snarling, wrenched at the arms locked around its neck. Mai held on, and Ryou hurled what appeared to be a blast of air at the two, knocking the beast to the ground. Mai let go as it fell, and dove out of the way. The beast still managed to land on her ankle, however, and she glared at it, aiming and letting loose a series of punches, hardly any of which landed, as the creature was dodging them gracefully, although they _were_ stopping it from getting up.

Joey had had enough. Pushing Ryou aside before he could attempt another attack, he ran at the beast. He grabbed Mai and tugged her free, shoved her and her bruised ankle in Tristan and Seto's direction as the two motorcyclists pulled up and were about to leap into the fray.

"What?" Seto blurted, almost letting Mai fall before it pierced his brain that she couldn't support her own weight.

"Sorry we're late," Tristan was saying to Tea, who had regained consciousness thanks to Yugi's Healing. "We were attacked – some idiot with a ray gun. Me and Seto – "

"Seto and I," corrected Yugi absently from where he sat at Duke's side.

"Whatever. Anyway we took him out, and Seto said that the ray gun thing was what brought this creature here – from another dimension, according to Mister Genius."

Meanwhile, Joey had leapt to attack the creature again and been blocked, and the two currently were circling each other warily. Brown eyes locked with red, and Joey's hands clenched into fists. The creature's tail lashed from side to side, catching Serenity across the calves and making her fall over.

Ryou stood at the edge of the circle the two were carving out, biting his lip. He wanted to leap into the fray to help his friend, but he could tell that now, as with all the times before, the blonde would never accept help.

The creature was the first to move, darting at Joey, its claws extended. The blonde leaped back, breaking the circle and avoiding the razor-sharp claws. He scowled at having been forced back and sped forward, aiming a punch at the creature's head. The creature grabbed his fist and flipped him over, so he landed onto the concrete of the road. He expelled a painful breath of air and scrambled to his feet, turning and letting his leg shoot out in a roundhouse kick. The creature smirked and grabbed his ankle as it drew close, jerking it to make Joey hit the dirt for the second time in less than a minute.

Serenity squeaked and ran forward, but Joey delivered a blow to the creature's calf and leapt to his feet, calling, "Stay out of this, 'Ren!"

She stopped dead, her inner struggle clear on her face: obey her brother, or rush to his aid as her first instinct had been?

The creature lashed out at Joey with a kick that he managed to dodge, and a punch that he didn't. His lungs were emptied of air as the fist connected with his ribcage, and he stumbled back.

"Wheeler! You can't do this on your own!" Seto barked.

Joey threw a punch and darted around the creature to plant a foot on its back, making it lurch forward a few steps before wiping his brow and declaring, "I don't need your help!"

"Joey, what is your problem?" Mai demanded as Joey took another blow to the ribs. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

Joey picked up a large rock and hurled it at the creature, his eyes darting around to see if there was anything else he could use as a weapon.

"I wont shut up just because you're ignoring me!" Mai continued. "We're not trying to belittle you, damn it! No one of us could take this thing alone. Not me, not Seto, not _you_. We have to work together!"

Seto scowled. "Listen to her, Wheeler. Why do you think I work with you people? Because it's fun? Not likely. I work with you because I am fully aware of my own limitations."

"We need to work as a team!" added Yugi, stepping forward and standing just behind his friend, his bare hands outstretched. "There is no 'I' in team."

Serenity gave her brother a pleading look, trying not to see the blood and grime that covered his suit.

Joey landed in the dirt, skidding until he lay at Yugi's feet. Yugi bent down and placed his hands carefully on his side as the blonde groaned. His hands came up to bat Yugi's away, but the Healer persisted and it hurt too much for Joey to keep it up, so he gave in.

The creature roared in triumph, flicking its tail wildly.

Joey got to his feet, clasping Yugi's hand in his own. Their eyes met, and Joey sighed, and then grinned. "Let's do this!"

"That's my boy!" crowed Mai, drawing one of her guns. Serenity's eyes lit up, and she ran over to her brother, helping Yugi hoist him to his feet. Duke shot him a thumb's up and then groaned, making Yugi run back to his side.

Seto folded his arms across his chest, his expression unreadable. His blue eyes flickered upwards, watching the clouds suddenly filling the sky. He smirked as he watched the friends prepare to face the advancing beast together, and then raised a hand dramatically, pointing at a sign that hung over the street over the creature's head. Lightning struck it with a crash that made everyone except Seto and the beast wince, and the sign crashed onto the creature's head, knocking it out. The brunette walked casually over to his motorcycle, leaning against it and watching intently.

As the sign crashed down, Joey turned to his friends. Mai, leaning on Ryou's shoulder, held out a gun. He hesitated, and then accepted it. All he knew about guns flowed willingly into his head, and he gripped the cool metal, confident in his ability with the device.

Ryou transferred Mai's weight onto Yugi's shoulder, and came to stand with Serenity at Joey's side. The three watched as the creature stirred, and then began to get up, throwing the sign aside as though it were as light as a feather.

Mai aimed and emptied a full round of bullets into the creature, the unsteadiness from the pain in her leg making her aim shaky. The creature howled angrily as several bullets embedded themselves in its thigh, and louder as one scraped its arm. It leapt at Mai, but was blown back by a gust of wind courtesy of Ryou. Joey darted around to its back, aiming Mai's gun and pulling the trigger.

Ryou waved an imperious hand and the creature staggered backwards as a fierce blast of hot air blasted it. The bullet Joey had fired was blown off course by the wind and embedded itself in a nearby building. Serenity ran forward, punching the creature with impossibly stretched arms, standing at enough of a distance so her opponent couldn't hit back.

Joey ran forward and fired at super speed, the bullet hitting the creature's back. The creature howled and there was pain in the howl. Ryou hesitated, and then knocked the creature over with another gust. A kick and punch combo from Serenity sealed the deal.

Thunder rumbled, and – unnoticed by anyone – Seto's eyes flashed, their colour becoming a darker shade of blue. He flicked a finger, and a lightning bolt reached out of the sky towards where the creature lay. He picked up a bulky gun and tossed it over to the creature just before the lightning struck.

The force of the strike knocked everyone to their feet, and when they got up the creature was nowhere to be seen.

Joey looked around at his friends in wonderment, marvelling at how he didn't feel like a charity case because he'd accepted help. He felt… empowered, even. Like he could do anything. He turned to Yugi to comment as much, but before the words could leave his lips the world went dark…

"Joey? Are you all right? I heard a bang…"

Joey opened his eyes and blinked to clear his vision. He was lying on his back in his room and a concerned Serenity – not wearing anything unusual – was crouching over him. He looked around, confused. "Where's everyone else?"

Serenity's brow creased. "What do you mean Joey?"

Joey felt the awkward sensation of a mixture of relief and loss flooding his system as he realised he had just been dreaming. "Nothing, nothing…" He got to his feet and grinned at his now thoroughly confused sister. "Never been better, actually."

He walked over to his bed and retrieved his bag. "I'm just going over to Yugi's, okay?"

"Sure," Serenity managed, and she sat on the floor for a few moments after her brother had barrelled through the apartment and out, slamming the door behind him. There was something different about Joey. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there it was. Sighing, she got to her feet and gathered up the broken chemistry set box, depositing it in the dustbin before exiting the room.

Yugi closed his Maths book with a satisfied smile, glad that he was finally finished his homework. He got to his feet and stretched, walking into the kitchen. The doorbell rang, and he sauntered over to the door, opening it to reveal a sweaty, yet grinning Joey.

"Joey! What's up?" he asked, moving aside to let his friend in, noting with mounting curiosity that his friend had brought his school backpack.

"Nothing much…" Joey seemed to gather himself together and then he said in a rush, "I just wanted to ask your help."

Yugi smiled widely. Joey, actually _asking _for _help_? That was something for the books. "Sure. What for?"

Again the slight faltering of the smile, and again the quick return of resolution to the uncertain eyes. "In Maths…" Joey began to make his way into the dining room, Yugi following close behind. "There's just this one thing that I don't get…"

And across town, in a plush office, two ice-blue eyes held a satisfied smirk as their owner put away the newest gadget, carefully setting a report on its first – successful – testing in a blue folder.

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_Well, what'd ya think? -coughs meaningfully-_

_Toodles..._


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